Hansen: The toll of school shootings on law enforcement

On Oct. 2, the day after the Umpqua Community College shootings in Oregon that left 10 dead and nine wounded, Cal State Fullerton Police Chief Dennis DeMaio sat at his office computer and reviewed a draft email he was about to send to his campus community.

It was not the first time he would alert the campus, and he knew it would not be the last.

DeMaio, who has more than four decades in law enforcement, tried to balance sympathy with matter-of-fact instructions. But in the back of his mind, he also wondered how long people would pay attention.

“I really do wonder,” he said later, trying to make sense of the current climate of violence. “I’m wondering if people are becoming complacent or used to this. I get that bad feeling as if people just expect another one.”

In a plain-spoken, almost paternal voice, DeMaio, 67, implored the second-largest CSU school in the state to stay vigilant.

“Confronting violence is never easy, nor is there a single response that is right,” he wrote. “Every situation will be different for every person, so the best thing for us to do is to consider all of the options available to us, then practice them as often as possible.”

DeMaio knows it’s a tough request to make of students who are more focused on schoolwork. They shouldn’t be expected to worry about their safety.

He arrived at CSUF in 2012, after working, among other places, at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the Theo Lacy correctional facility and John Wayne Airport, in airport police services. He immediately boosted CSUF’s role on the highly trained CSU Critical Response Unit, sent officers to bomb school and made the simple call to increase officer visibility.

“Our biggest deal is high visibility,” he said. “We make it a point to increase our foot patrols, because when students see uniformed officers it’s huge for them. It gives them a little more safety.”

As DeMaio sees it, when something bad happens — and it probably will — his goal is to limit the damage.

“You’re never going to stop all the shootings,” he said. “If you have an active shooter on this campus, a certain amount of people are going to die when it happens. Let’s face reality. Because it’s going to take two to three minutes for us to get on scene and be able to engage that person.”

Ideally, DeMaio wants to see more prevention at the state and national level — but in the areas that matter. If a shooter arrives on campus, it’s already too late, so focus on the core causes.

“You look at every avenue to save lives,” he said. “If people call in about a strange behavior, maybe we catch a person with a weapon beforehand. Maybe we catch a person who needs psychological care beforehand.

“Because if you look at most of them, we have a lot of mental illness. I think the state — and I think the country — needs to address that mental illness. I know they talk about it all the time, but that’s where a lot of money is going to have to be put — no doubt in my mind.”

The security procedures at Cal State Fullerton are similar to those at other Orange County schools. They all strongly support prevention awareness and emergency response tactics. UC Irvine, for example, has an “Active Shooter” instructional area on its website, complete with profile descriptions and prevention tips.

Orange Coast College also has an active-shooter page along with a “Shots Fired on Campus” video.

Without fail, every school has thorough lists of procedures: run, hide, lock the door, turn off the lights, fight if you have to.

“I know we make a difference with all the training,” DeMaio said. “We keep publicizing it because the more they hear about it, I’m hoping the more they become alert to ‘hey, this person is strange’ and call for service.”

Despite the training and national attention, DeMaio believes the U.S. gun violence is taking a toll on everyone.

“I think even law enforcement officers get that feeling like where’s it going to happen next?” he said. “It’s these things that keep us awake at night. We worry about our university, our own perimeter, our own area of responsibility. No police officer, no agency wants to lose some of their students. They don’t want it to happen here.

“I’ve been doing this job for a very long time. This is my 42nd year and you care about the public, you care about the young people because they’re our future leaders and you want to keep them as safe as possible.”

On Oct. 9, exactly one week after DeMaio sent his email, three other school shootings occurred across the country. Two people died; five were injured.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at [email protected].